Stewardship: Giving

This week, we turn our focus to stewardship. Now, I'm well aware that most people hate stewardship sermons. They often feel like the preacher is laying a massive guilt trip to give more money. A few notable examples have really spoiled the practice as well. Who can forget the excesses of Jim and Tammy Bakker, for instance? Well, let's make this relatively painless and get the tithing part out of the way early.

I believe that the Bible teaches tithing, which means a tenth of your income goes toward God's work through the church. Remember the challenge of the prophet Malachi to ancient Israel:

"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse — the whole nation of you — because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it" (Mal. 3:8-10).

I don't believe God will love you any more if you tithe. And of course, we know that we're not saved by our good deeds. God doesn't like us because we give to others. Please don't ever fall into that fatal error. We are saved by faith alone. Please don't forget the truth of Ephesians 2:8-10:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Please don't think you'll be able to make God like you because you do good stuff. The good stuff you do is just a tiny drop in a huge bucket. You might as well try impressing Paavo Jarvi by playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Marvin Lewis by running the quarterback sneak. You might as well try impressing Donald Trump by saving money by clipping coupons. It just won't work.

If that is true, how much more are we unable to impress God with our little good deeds! We won't make him like us by our good deeds. However, when we love him, and we believe that he's working through us, then we understand that even the smallest kindness is but a tiny brushstroke in his masterpiece. We understand that our acts of goodness and kindness are a part of his greater movement. We cease doing them to win his love, and start doing them to respond to his love.

Furthermore, I believe that God requires that we not give grudgingly. As Paul says as he talks to the Corinthians about giving to a special offering,

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Cor. 9:6-8).

Now, that wasn't so painful was it? Now pray about it. Don't just do the math. Sit down — husbands and wives together, or singles alone — and talk to God. Ask God for direction. Ask him to give you peace over what you're going to pledge. But don't put pen to paper until you've first gone to God in prayer. 1

Now that that's out of the way, I want to turn your attention away from your pledge. I want to talk about the other 90%. You see, Scripture does not teach that 10% belongs to God and the rest belongs to you. Scripture teaches that everything belongs to God. He asks 10% for his work through the church, and asks you to manage the other 90%.

Look at David's prayer after receiving donations for building the temple:

Yours O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours O Lord is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all (1 Chron 19:11-12).

And later in the prayer he says:

O Lord, our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you (1 Chron. 19:16).

It all belongs to God, and we but hold it in trust (cf. Exod. 9:29; Ps. 24:1; 1 Cor. 10:26).

Consider the parable of the unrighteous steward in Luke 16:1-15. This is a fascinating and much neglected parable. It comes in Luke right after the parable of the prodigal son and right before the parable of Lazarus and Dives (the poor man and rich man whose stations are reversed in the afterlife). I suggest that there's thematic unity with those two more famous parables.

This parable, like the other two, is about someone who has been entrusted with much wealth, but who has squandered it. We're not told here how it was squandered by this individual. The other two parables give pictures of extreme self-indulgence. Here, what is important is how the individual responds once he gets caught. He starts thinking about storing up credits with others. When he's out on the streets and on his own, he wants people to owe him.

Now, Jesus does an interesting thing here. He doesn't tell the parable to praise the dishonesty of the steward. He makes that clear in Luke 16:10. Rather, he tells the parable to convince his hearers how we are to use our worldly wealth. The point here is to use what God has given us for blessing others. Yes, this includes giving to organizations, but it includes so much more. It includes taking some of your productive work hours to volunteer time with the needy. It means opening your home up for hospitality. It means being prepared to use your vehicles and your labor to help someone move. For some, it may mean taking a week of your vacation and going on a short term mission trip.

Let me give you a concrete example: every year at Christmas, Jeff Comment, the CEO of Herlzberg Diamonds, takes two weeks off to play Santa Claus in Children's Hospitals in cities where his company does business. He visits six or seven hospitals a year and sees upwards of 2,000 children in that time. Instead of the typical routine of pile the kids in a room and burst in with a bag, he goes room to room and spends individual time with each child, bringing a teddy bear and taking a picture for the child's mementos. Comment says, "The person who gets the most out of this Santa deal is me. I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I've found something that most people never find... Its' a way that you can give part of your life — your time and energy — and have an impact on someone else's life ... that's the power of giving." 2

God made us to be a blessing to other people, and that includes blessing people with all our resources. Not just a financial blessing, but with our time, our energy, our abilities. The parable teaches the basic truth that none of it belongs to you. It teaches that one of the basic ways to please the one to whom it belongs is to bless other people. You think about that. Amen.

Notes:

1. In the interests of full disclosure, my wife Tammy and I do practice tithing. Ministers' salaries are broken up into two portions: a cash salary and a housing allowance. We tithe on our before-tax income of the combination of cash salary and housing allowance. And tithing was not my idea; it was Tammy's. Here's the "super spiritual" seminary student Russell Smith saying that we needed to be saving 15% of our income, and Tammy said absolutely not — not when we're not even giving God his 10%. I went kicking and screaming, but we haven't turned back since, and we've always been able to make the bills.

2 From Fast Company, December, 2003.